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1 Enoch

About this book
Chapter 98

1 And now I swear to you, to the wise and to the foolish, for you will experience many things on the earth. 2 For men will wear more ornaments than a woman, and colored garments more than a virgin: in royalty, grandeur, and power, and in silver, gold, and purple, and in splendor and food they will be lavished on as if with water. 3 So they will lack teaching and wisdom, and will perish along with their possessions; and with all their glory and splendor, and in shame, slaughter, and great poverty, their spirits will be thrown into the furnace of fire. 4 I have sworn to you, sinners, that just as a mountain has not become a servant, nor a hill the maidservant of a woman, so sin was not sent upon the earth, but man created it himself, and those who commit it will fall under a great curse.⁠ 5 Barrenness was not given to the woman, but she dies without children because of the deeds of her own hands. 6 I have sworn to you, sinners, by the Holy Great One, that all your evil deeds are revealed in the heavens, and none of your deeds of oppression are concealed or hidden. 7 Do not think in your spirit nor say in your heart that you do not know or see that every sin is recorded every day in heaven in the presence of the Most High.⁠ 8 From now on you know that all the oppression with which you oppress is recorded every day until the day of your judgment. 9 Woe to you, fools, for through your folly you will perish; and you transgress against the wise, and good fortune will not be your lot. 10 And now, know that you are prepared for the day of destruction; so do not hope to live, sinners, but you will depart and die; for you know no ransom, for you are prepared for the day of great judgment, for the day of tribulation and great shame for your spirits. 11 Woe to you, stubborn of heart, who do wickedness and eat blood: where do you expect to receive good things to eat and drink and be satisfied? From all the good things which the Lord the Most High has placed abundantly on the earth;⁠ so you will have no peace. 12 Woe to you who love the deeds of unrighteousness: why do you hope for good fortune for yourselves? Know that you will be handed over into the hands of the righteous, and they will cut off your heads and kill you, and have no mercy on you. 13 Woe to you who rejoice in the trouble of the righteous, for no grave will be dug for you. 14 Woe to you who reject the words of the righteous, for you will have no hope of life. 15 Woe to you who write down lying and godless words; for they write their lies so that men may hear them and act wickedly toward their neighbors.⁠ 16 So they will have no peace but die a sudden death.

Texts in conversation

Compare 1 Enoch 98:16 and Luke 12:20

Pseudepigrapha, Apocalypses · New Testament

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Summary

In 1 Enoch 98, Enoch warns that those who delight in dishonesty will find no peace but face sudden death. In Luke, Jesus similarly describes a wealthy man who thinks he has peace but suddenly dies without warning, his possessions now useless.

Passages

1 Enoch 98:16

Pseudepigrapha, Apocalypses
12 Woe to you who love the deeds of unrighteousness: why do you hope for good fortune for yourselves? Know that you will be handed over into the hands of the righteous, and they will cut off your heads and kill you, and have no mercy on you. 13 Woe to you who rejoice in the trouble of the righteous, for no grave will be dug for you. 14 Woe to you who reject the words of the righteous, for you will have no hope of life. 15 Woe to you who write down lying and godless words; for they write their lies so that men may hear them and act wickedly toward their neighbors. 16 So they will have no peace but die a sudden death.
300 BCE – 100 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in 1 Enoch

Luke 12:20

New Testament
16 He then told them a parable: “The land of a certain rich man produced an abundant crop, 17 so he thought to himself, ‘What should I do, for I have nowhere to store my crops?’ 18 Then he said, ‘I will do this: I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. 19 And I will say to myself, “You have plenty of goods stored up for many years; relax, eat, drink, celebrate!”’ 20 But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be demanded back from you, but who will get what you have prepared for yourself?’ 21 So it is with the one who stores up riches for himself, but is not rich toward God.”
75–85 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in Luke

References

"... It is not surprising that the God Luke depicts would not only have a vested interest in the man's use of his goods, but would also evaluate the man's plans as foolish. God's announcement invites the hearers of the parable and readers/hearers of Luke to evaluate the use of one's possessions in light of one's inevitable death and the potential imminence of one's demise. This rhetorical strategy is employed by Ben Sira and Lucian, both of whom use the inevitability and uncertain timing of death as an opportunity to assess one's use of possessions. God's question (And the things you prepared – whose will they be?) reveals an interest not only with the end of the man's life but also with the life of the man's possessions after his death. Unlike 1 Enoch, the possessions in this story have a life of their own, one whose end does not coincide with the death of the rich man. God's question invites reflection upon the ongoing life of the rich man's possessions. What kind of life will the rich man's possessions have after he dies? More to the point: whose life will the rich man's possessions influence once he dies? The man's strategy is foolish since its realized outcome depends upon two unreliable factors, the fragility of goods and precariousness of plans for the future. One becomes rich toward God by giving alms since this act of love becomes an unfailing treasure in heaven. In contrast to the ephemerality and unreliability of goods and plans for the future, giving alms is an act of love that can never be destroyed. Luke assumes that all else can be taken away from someone, whether it be possessions or, in the extreme case, one's life ..."
Matthew S. Rindge, “Illustrating Wisdom: Luke 12:16-21 and the Interplay of Death and Possessions in Sapiential Literature” (PhD diss., Emory University, 2008), 246–247.

References are not endorsements of their contents. Read each reference in full to understand its author's intentions in using these texts.

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1 Enoch 98:16 and Luke 12:20

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